The Quickie: New Polling Shows Abortion Rights Are Extremely Popular Nationwide
For Immediate Release: Feb. 23, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: abortion rights are popular nationwide and across most demographics, legislators advance near total ban in NE, and anti-trans lawmakers ramp up attacks against gender-affirming care.
NEW POLLING SHOWS ABORTION RIGHTS ARE EXTREMELY POPULAR NATIONWIDE: Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) released new nationwide data today, showing that abortion rights remain extremely popular, with 64% of Americans saying that abortion should be legal in most or all cases (up from 55% in 2010). Majorities of most religious groups, all measured racial and ethnic groups, all formal education levels, men and women, LGBTQ+ people, and all age groups think abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
There is not a single state in the union that favors total abortion bans: in fact, no more than 14% of any state supports total abortion bans. Moreover, there is not a single state in the union where a majority favored the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Read PRRI’s full results here.
LEGISLATORS ADVANCE NEAR TOTAL ABORTION BAN IN NEBRASKA: Yesterday, Nebraska state legislators advanced a near-total abortion ban out of committee, setting up the bill to begin its first of three rounds of debate necessary for passage. The bill would ban abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and penalize doctors who perform abortions after six weeks with the loss of their license.
“Today’s vote doesn’t come as a surprise—it’s something we expected,” said Andi Curry Grubb, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska. “We have a long fight still ahead of us, and we stand with Nebraskans—a growing majority of whom support keeping abortion safe and legal—to block this dangerous near total abortion ban. Health care decisions belong between a patient and their doctor, not politicians who lack medical expertise. But, the reality is, Nebraska lawmakers now have more control over our bodies and futures than we do. And it’s imperative we let them know this proposed ban is unacceptable.”
Fifty-nine percent of Nebraskans do not want any further restrictions on abortion in Nebraska and oppose abortion bans, which is a 23 percentage point difference compared to those who want abortion banned. Despite this, the ban is just two votes shy of passing, but Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska will continue to fight for Nebraskans’ fundamental rights.
Read more at KMTV and KPVI.
STATE LAWMAKERS CONTINUE TO RAMP UP ATTACKS AGAINST GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE: State lawmakers are continuing to ramp up attacks on transgender and gender nonconforming people, including often finding novel ways of limiting who can access gender-affirming care. Nationwide, more than 300 anti-trans bills have been introduced this legislative session, and more are expected to come. In addition to outright bans on this life-saving care, lawmakers are attacking providers across state lines and banning insurance coverage for gender-affirming care. Tennessee lawmakers have proposed a measure (HB1215) that would kick insurers out of the state Medicaid program if the insurer covers gender-affirming care in any part of the country. Kentucky, Arkansas, and Florida have also proposed bills that would make providing gender-affirming care nearly impossible by penalizing providers and insurance providers or banning the granting of public funds for gender-affirming care providers.
“This attempt to try to limit health insurance, particularly for providers and health insurance from companies is just going to [cost] more money and delay more things in court, because we’ve known for well over a decade that health insurance has explicitly said gender-affirming care is included in health care,” Shelby Chestnut, executive director of the Transgender Law Center told The Daily Beast…
… “I think it’s a blanket fear-mongering tactic,” Chestnut said. “It is concerning the lengths lawmakers are going to criminalize not only young people and their parents and their health care providers.”
Read more at the Daily Beast.
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